Jon covers a lot of ground in his interview, but I especially like his answer to Allen’s last question: "What tips do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?"

Jon: I would say two things. First, find yourself a mentor, or at least a friend in the business that can help to get you hooked in. If you don’t know anybody yet, reach out to a handful. My experience is that these people are generally more than willing to help, and happy to bring someone new into the mix.

Second, don’t be afraid to just dive in. I realize not everyone can do this, but it’s really hard to go half way into the startup lifestyle. Recruiting a team, raising money, building a product, etc all require lots of time and effort and you really can’t do it only on the weekend. It’s a bit scary at first, but once you get in it’s tough to believe you’ve lived any other way.

As the second year’s group of TechStars’ companies gear up for investor day in a few weeks, it’s fun to ponder how far some of last year’s companies have come.